Adjuvant chemotherapy improves overall survival for pancreatic cancer patients: JAMA Oncology study

Cancer that develops in pancreatic cells is
known as pancreatic cancer. The pancreas is an organ in your abdomen that is
located behind the bottom portion of your stomach. Pancreatic cancer starts in
the tissues of the pancreas. Your pancreas generates hormones that help you
control your blood sugar as well as enzymes that help with digestion.

University of Colorado Cancer Center recently
released new research that showcases chemotherapy treatment before and after
surgery for pancreatic cancer as the most effective combination for patients.

The study findings were published in JAMA
Oncology and led by Marco Del Chiaro, MD, division chief of surgical oncology
in the University of Colorado Department of Surgery, and visiting researcher
Toshitaka Sugawara, MD, PhD.

“It’s critical to have large-scale data that
doctors can use to make decisions about chemotherapy plans for patients who
qualify for pancreatic cancer surgery,” said author Marco Del Chiaro, MD,
division chief of surgical oncology at the CU Cancer Center on the University
of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

The study showed overall survival was
significantly longer in patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy after
neo-adjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgery, compared to the group of patients
that did not receive it.

This was the case for all patients independent
of their lymph node status and resection margins.

“The success of adjuvant chemotherapy used to
be unclear, with varied data available for doctors to consider. Our study
suggests that adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery should be implemented no
matter the biological stage of the cancer,” adds Del Chiaro.

The researchers conducted a nationwide,
retrospective study examining the overall survival of patients who received
adjuvant chemotherapy and those who did not. To do so, they used data from the
National Cancer Database and included nearly 900 patients with pancreatic
adenocarcinoma (PDAC) diagnosed between 2010 to 2018.

They found adjuvant chemotherapy was
associated with better survival in patients with any pathological N stage and
margin status.

“It’s important to continue to move forward
research in pancreatic cancer care to improve the survival rate. By conducting
the largest study of its kind and analyzing data using multiple models, we’re
able to improve the knowledge in this paper for doctors and patients to inform
their plans and help prolong survival in many cases,” said lead researcher
Sugawara.

Sugawara and his team investigated the
interactions between pathological findings and adjuvant chemotherapy in
separate multivariable Cox regression models. Their findings suggest that
tumors with aggressive biology benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy even after
surgery.

Reference:

Marco Del Chiaro et al,Association of Adjuvant
Chemotherapy in Patients With Resected Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma After
Multiagent Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy, JAMA Oncology, DOI 10.1001/jamaoncol.2022.5808

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